Chelsea are preparing to face Liverpool on Sunday in what is expected to be a tough Premier League match up for both sides.
The two sides recently clashed in the Super Cup and it was only penalties that could separate the them.
Since then Jurgen Klopp’s side have pressed on and are the only team in the English top division to win every match.
Whilst Frank Lampard has stuttered a lot in his opening games with Chelsea, despite a convincing last match thrashing Wolves 5-2 on their own turf.
Chelsea midfielder Jorginho has featured in every game for Lampard so far this season and is always, one of the best resistors of a high press. He in fact masters the art of being ‘press-resistant’.
Liverpool are a side who press high and do it well, and Jorginho has been speaking to The Athletic revealing the best way to beat a high press, and it’s all about forward thinking.
As reported here by Team Talk, he said:
“You have to know what you are going to do before the ball arrives with you, to be certain where the next pass is but, most of all, where your marker is.
“If I’m only thinking about my next move when the ball has reached me, I’m dead. They’ll [Liverpool] be on top of me. So, knowing the quality of the press they have, I’m thinking one pass, two passes ahead.
“I’m glancing this way and that from the moment Kepa [Arrizabalaga] indicates he wants to give me the ball.
“I’m looking over one shoulder, over the other shoulder, making sure I know how far they are away from me. How much time I have.
“If I am uncertain for a split second once the ball has been played, that’s it. They’ll be on me and there’s no time to think then. You need to know where the danger is.
“Sometimes you realise immediately that you are marked, that they are too close at your back, so you make sure the goalkeeper knows, then make a run deliberately to drag one of their forwards out of position.
“You don’t want the ball anymore, but you take a player away, create space for someone else, and allow your team to pass into the right area and escape their press.
“How do you stay calm? I don’t know. That ability, that awareness, has been with me for as long as I can remember. It’s an instinct now.
“Maybe it was drilled into me in training when I was young, when I spent so long learning to improve my first touch, collecting the ball and then finding a pass.
“My mother would make me practise, practise, practise. On pitches, in the park, in the street, in our home, on the beach, everywhere… collect the ball, keep it tight, turn and lay it off. Be ready. Be precise.”
